Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corp Extends Deadline to Change Property Status

Owners of properties on the 118 roads declared as ‘commercial’ by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) have set a deadline of February 15, 2022 to apply for a change of usage of the building from residential use to commercial and non-residential use. Such property owners can apply online for change of usage of the building by paying the impact fee along with 33 per cent compounding fee. The application must include self-declaration. Earlier, the GHMC had provided a similar opportunity between November 1 and December 31 with 50 per cent fees upfront and the remaining by March 31, 2022 which was utilized by about 2,000 property owners. The GHMC has collected Rs 50 crore as the first installment from the 2,000 applications. Another 4,000 property owners are yet to change the usage of their building located on the declared commercial roads and hence decided to extend the deadline to February 15. If they don’t utilise the opportunity, the property owners risk sealing of their premises by the GHMC town planning wing. The GHMC also made it clear that this facility is only for owners who have constructed the building with valid permissions, not for unauthorized constructions. The state government, recognizing the potential for commercial development, revised the impact fee to make it more rational and dynamic in July last year and declared 118 roads as “commercial roads”. The impact fee so collected is being escrowed into Strategic Nala Development Programme (SNDP) account.